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Justinian I · The Digest of Justinian §33.2.25.pr

Return of Income after Wife's Death and Denial of Trust

Passage 4977 of 9271 · Latin

Summary

This section addresses a case where a testator, lacking legal skill, wished for estates and their income to return to his heirs after his wife's death, ruling that no trust of ownership or usufruct was created for them.

[IDEM libro octauo responsorum. ] §33.2.25.prQui fructus praediorum uxori reliquit, post mortem eius praedia cum reditibus ad heredes suos redire uoluit, imperitia lapsus.
[THE SAME, Opinions, Book VIII.] A person who left the usufruct of estates to his wife wished, after her death, the estates to return to his heirs along with their incomes, having fallen into error through lack of skill.
nullum fideicommissum dominus neque proprietatis neque fructus ad eos reuerti dedit: etenim reditus futuri, non praeteriti temporis demonstrati uidebantur.
The owner did not grant any trust for either the ownership or the usufruct to return to them; for the incomes were seen to be designated for future, not past time.

Notes

  1. §33.2.25.primperitia lapsus — imperitia is an ablative of means ('through lack of skill/inexperience'), and lapsus is the perfect participle of labi ('to slip, err') in the nominative masculine singular, modifying the subject of the main clause introduced by Qui. This describes how the testator's lack of legal expertise led him to write a redundant or legally meaningless provision.
  2. §33.2.25.prnullum fideicommissum dominus neque proprietatis neque fructus ad eos reuerti dedit — The direct object of dedit ('gave/granted') is nullum fideicommissum ('no trust'), and ad eos reuerti ('to return to them') is an infinitive phrase expressing the content or purpose of the trust. Here, eos refers to heredes suos (his own heirs).
  3. §33.2.25.prneque proprietatis neque fructus — Both are explanatory (or objective) genitives modifying fideicommissum ('a trust of neither ownership nor usufruct'). Since the usufruct naturally terminates upon the wife's death and merges back into the ownership held by the heirs, the attempt to 'return' them via a 'trust' is logically and legally inappropriate.

Cite this passage

Justinian I, The Digest of Justinian §33.2.25.pr. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi2806.phi002.humanitext-lat1:33.2.25.pr

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